The Alienware Monthly Melee concludes after a surprising group stage. Missed what happened? Don’t worry, we've got you covered.
The January Monthly Melee had an explosive first day. Hammers eSports, Spicy Boys, Rise Nation, and Luminosity took seats in the upper bracket while FaZe, Denial, Team Liquid, and Splyce began their fight in the lower bracket. Spicy Boys and Hammers were the stars of the group stage with impressive performances and victories against the bigger behemoths. Spicy Boys took one loss and two wins, while Hammers (previously -bird noises-) went undefeated in the group stage.
Hammers is definitely the story for this Month's Melee, since Luminosity was the only team to even take maps off of them. A very close 3:2 match between Hammers and Luminosity in Round 2 of the upper bracket was all Hammers needed to adapt. After LG came back from fighting through the lower bracket, Hammers took the tournament with a 3:0 victory.
The Hammers eSports squad has a bright future ahead with this clear and confident tournament victory over high level teams. Spicy Boys also have a lot to be proud of with a very, very strong tournament appearance and victories over FaZe and Rise Nation.
The Finals began with Hammers in the lead due to a one map advantage for clearing the Upper Bracket. The first played map between LG and Hammers was Numbani. Hammers began their defense with a modified Quad tank composition that swapped Reinhardt for Winston and Lucio for Soldier: 76. Luminosity began their Assault with the Quad tank composition.
After a couple unsuccessful pushes, Luminosity had gathered nearly 6 ultimates to bombard Hammers with. Luminosity came out on top and managed to capture the point with around a minute left on the clock. After capturing, they had more than 3 minutes to reach the next checkpoint. Luminosity's Spree eventually managed to land a devastating Graviton, which looked like it would result in Luminosity reaching the second checkpoint with a minute and a half left. Hammers, however, managed to come back and stall brilliantly for another whole minute. This resulted in Luminosity having just 2 minutes to close out, arguably, the most difficult section of Numbani. Hammers managed to stop Luminosity a mere 2.47 meters from the finish line.
Unfortunately for LG, Hammers were able to capture the first point quicker. This leaves Luminosity at a slight ultimate disadvantage. Hammers then sweeps through the streets of Numbani. Despite the situation looking grim for LG, they manage to pull off a spectacular defense. However, for as brilliant of a defense LG put up, Hammers turned everything around in Overtime. By winning two consecutive team fights - both in Overtime - Hammers closed out the map to take Numbani.
The final map was Kings Row. The first two engagements were decisively won by Hammers eSports off of the heroics of Super's aggressive Reinhardt - fully enabled by his team's support. The third engagement finally went in LG's favor with a successful Graviton from Spree. LG almost cleanly took streets phase with crucial staggers onto Voll and Rob420 of Hammers. However, Super - once again - put a stop to LG's progress with the aid of a Nanoboost. LG reached the second checkpoint eventually, but Hammers stop LG before they can complete the map.
Hammers takes the first point in their first assault, and do so very quickly with well over 5 minutes for streets phase. Super then lands an epic Earthshatter which lets Hammers ride almost all the way to the second checkpoint. They make quick work of LG's defense attempt and, again, have a whole 5 minutes on the clock. As expected, Super's heroics shine again as he takes down Superplouk's Reinhardt and lands a match and tournament winning Earthshatter.
The Quad tank composition with Reinhardt, D.Va, Zarya, Roadhog, Ana, and Lucio was very predominant throughout the playoffs - most notably from the winners Hammers eSports. Super, the Main Tank for Hammers eSports, continued his reign of Reinhardt terror with aggressive and flashy plays. The differentiating factor for his success was definitely the pocketing and support from his entire team. Luminosity's Ube made it known his Roadhog was a constant threat. DreamKazper's Roadhog was also a formidable force for Spicy Boys with very aggressive positioning and consistent hooks.
King's Row was much more popular in the playoffs compared to the group stage. Hollywood, Numbani, and Dorado were other popular escort/hybrid maps as well. Map drafting continues to be one of the most controversial factors for tournaments. The map results for the group stages and playoffs certainly show that teams change their ban approach depending on their opponents.
An electrifying Best-of-5 Finals brought January's Monthly Melee to a surprising conclusion. It'll be exciting to see Hammers and Spicy Boys develop further in the scene and take on other top 10 teams like EnVyUs, Cloud9, Immortals, and more.
For more competitive Overwatch news, follow @GosuOverwatch.
